Seussical
Seussical is a stage musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Cast *David Shiner - The Cat in the Hat *Kevin Chamberlin - Horton *Janine LaManna - Gertrude McFuzz *Anthony Blair Hall/Andrew Keenan-Bolger - The Boy/JoJo *William Ryall - The Grinch *Stuart Zagnit - The Mayor of Whoville *Alice Playten - Mrs. Mayor *Erick Devine - General Genghis Kahn Schmitz *Michele Pawk - Mayzie LaBird *Darren Lee - Vlad Vladikoff/Cat's Helper *Sharon Wilkins - Sour Kangaroo Plot As the story begins, there is nothing but a bare stage with an odd red-and-white striped hat in the center. A small boy discovers it and imagines who it could belong to, finally conjuring up the Cat in the Hat. The Cat creates the Seussian world around him and the Boy, and he acts as the narrator for the remainder of the musical, and is the Boy's mentor during the play. The Cat also plays some of the minor roles. At the Cat's encouragement, the Boy thinks up the Jungle of Nool, where Horton the Elephant is bathing. Horton hears a strange noise coming from a speck of dust, and decides there must be someone on it. He rescues the speck and places it on a clover and decides to guard it. Led by the at-first-villain Sour Kangaroo, the other animals in the jungle mock him mercilessly, except for Gertude McFuzz, Horton's next door neighbor, who admires his compassion and begins to fall in love with him. Horton soon discovers the dust speck is in fact a planet covered with microscopic people called Whos. They introduce themselves and their community (such as their yearly Christmas pageant based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas) and explain their predicament. In addition to being unable to control where their dust speck flies, they are on the brink of war and all of their beautiful Truffula Trees (from The Lorax) have been cut down. Horton's resolve to guard the dust speck is strengthened. At this point, the Cat in the Hat abruptly pushes the Boy from the beginning into the story; he becomes Jojo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville. No sooner does he enter than he is roughly scolded by his parents: he has inadvertently been causing trouble at school by thinking (or rather, having Thinks), disrupting the class and horrifying the teachers. Jojo is sent to "take a bath and go to bed/And think some normal Thinks instead". Jojo blames the Cat for getting him in trouble and asks him to leave. The Cat replies with "Ok, but first let me say." The Cat starts singing "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think", but Jojo tries to tune out the Cat. The Cat soon persuades him to "have a think in the tub" by explaining the things that you can do if you think. Jojo imagines the tub is McElligot's Pool, distracting himself and accidentally flooding the Mayor's living room. The Mayor and his wife wonder what they should do about their son. After receiving a brochure from the Cat, they decide to send him to military school, under the supervision and persuasion of General Genghis Kahn Schmitz, who is preparing to go to war with those who eat their bread butter side down (as in The Butter Battle Book). Meanwhile, Horton has been guarding the clover for "over a week", getting ridiculed by the Citizens of the Jungle. He then thinks about how no matter what others may say or do, he still has his dreams for adventure and a friend. He decides to chat with the Whos, and Jojo responds. They chat and discover they have found a friend in one another. Jojo goes to sleep, only to be woken up by the Cat in the Hat. The Cat asks him what should happen next, and Jojo decides to focus on Getrude. Her feelings for Horton are stronger than ever, but she fears he doesn't notice her because her tail consists only of "one droopy-droop feather". At the advice of Mayzie La Bird, whose tail is enormous and dazzling, Gertrude, goes to Doctor Dake by the Lake (played by the Cat), who prescribes her pills to make her tail grow. Gertrude is so excited by the dramatic and immediate results of the pills that she overdoses, causing her tail to grow to a ridiculous length. Horton is ambushed by a group of ne'er-do-well monkeys called the Wickersham Brothers who steal the clover and run off with it. Horton gives chase, until the monkeys give the clover to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff. Horton continues to chase the clover, until Vlad Vladikoff drops it into a large patch of identical clovers, 'one hundred miles wide'. The Cat in the Hat abruptly freezes the action and delivers an ironically cheery tune to the audience. Horton begins to look for the clover, hoping that the Whos are still alive, when Gertrude, who has followed Horton all this distance, catches up with him. Her tail is now gorgeous, if impractically large. She tries to catch his attention, but he is too busy looking for the Whos to notice her. She retreats to take more pills while he continues searching. After searching 2,999,999 clovers, Horton loses hope, and he sees Mayzie La Bird high in a nest. Apparently, she was in Fort Worth, when she met a nightingale named Tweet McFirth. After 'three weeks of bliss', Tweet left her with an egg. Mayzie then persuades Horton to give up on the search for the Whos and sit on her egg while she goes off for a vacation. Horton reluctantly agrees, and Mayzie flies off. Horton waits on the egg for months, bearing harsh weather conditions and having to decide whether to keep Mayzie's promise or find the Whos. Horton is captured by hunters, Gertrude tries to save Horton, but the size and weight of her new tail does not allow her to fly. The Cat in the Hat, backed by the full company, sings another reprise of "How Lucky You Are" to finish off Act I. At the top of the act, Horton is transported to New York City and auctioned off to the Circus McGurkus. After going on the road and "sitting on the egg for 51 weeks, sitting here while people have paid to take peeks," Horton meets up with Mayzie again, who has come to visit the circus while on vacation. Horton tries to give the egg back to her. She insists that he keep it as a rather dubious gift, wishes him good luck when it hatches, and leaves. Horton, betrayed and alone, sorrowfully remembers how no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't save the Whos, or poor Jojo. Realizing that the egg also is alone without its mother, and he is the only one who can help it. With a brave determination, declares that he'll do better than try, and protect the little egg with everything he has. Then he sings the egg a lullaby about a magical world called Solla Sollew. At the same time, Jojo, the Mayor, and the Mayor's Wife, lost in the clover field, reflect on recent events, wishing they could all be in Solla Sollew as well. The Battle of Butter finally commences, but Jojo rebels against General Schmitz and abandons the army. He hands in his sword and hat and unwittingly runs out onto a minefield, vanishing in an explosion. The General assumes that Jojo died in the explosion, and heads back to Whoville to deliver the sad news to his family. The Cat reveals to the audience that Jojo did, in fact, survive, but Jojo quickly discovers that he's lost, and doesn't know where to turn. After being confronted by the Cat and the Hunches, Jojo finds his way home by the power of his Thinks. Meanwhile, Gertrude sneaks into the circus where Horton is kept at night and frees him. She explains the troubles she went through to reach him, including getting all but one of her tail feathers plucked out to allow her to fly, and finally confesses her love for him. Also, she found Horton's clover, as well! Horton is delighted to find the Whos alive and well, but the happy ending has not arrived yet: the evil Sour Kangaroo suddenly appears and with the Wickersham Brothers, kidnaps Horton. Horton is dragged back to the Jungle of Nool and put on trial for "talking to a speck, disturbing the peace, and loitering...on an egg." The Cat plays the bailiff, and Judge Yertle the Turtle presides over the case. Gertrude and Horton make a stand at the case, but the verdict is obvious from the beginning: Horton is remanded to the "Nool Asylum for the Criminally Insane," and the clover is to be boiled in a kettle of beezlenut oil. Horton, aghast, encourages the Whos to make as much noise as they can, to prove they exist. Their efforts initially seem futile, until Jojo comes up with a new word, "YOPP," his shouting of which reverberates throughout the world and finally makes the Whos heard. The court acquits Horton, and the Sour Kangaroo ends her wicked ways and decides to do her part in protecting the clover. On Who, Jojo is celebrated for his achievement, to be honored as Thinker Non-Stop. Suddenly, the egg hatches: to everyone's surprise, a tiny flying Elephant-Bird comes out. Horton panics, realizing he can't handle flying progeny, and asks Gertrude what he should do. She responds, "I have wings, yes I can fly...you teach him earth, and I will teach him sky." They agree to raise the child together as mother and father. The Cat in the Hat appears one final time to sum things up. The scene dissolves, leaving only Jojo, now just a boy again, and the strange hat from the top of show. The Boy walks up to the hat, and pulls it over his head and says "Seuss!" Blackout. The curtain call is accompanied by a final number set to a verse of Green Eggs and Ham. Musical numbers ;Act I *"Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!" – The Cat in the Hat and Company *"Horton Hears a Who!" – Bird Girls, Horton and Citizens of the Jungle of Nool *"Biggest Blame Fool" – Sour Kangaroo, Young Kangaroo, Horton, Wickersham Brothers, Bird Girls, Gertrude McFuzz, Mayzie LaBird, Citizens of the Jungle, the Boy and The Cat *"Here on Who" – The Mayor, Mrs. Mayor, The Grinch, Whos, Schmitz and Horton *"A Day for the Cat in the Hat" – The Cat, Jojo and Cat's Helpers *"It's Possible (In McElligot's Pool)" – JoJo, The Cat and Fish *"How to Raise a Child" – The Mayor and Mrs. Mayor *"The Military" – General Genghis Kahn Schmitz, The Mayor, Mrs. Mayor, JoJo and Cadets *"Alone in the Universe" – Horton and JoJo *"The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz" – Gertrude *"Amayzing Mayzie" – Mayzie LaBird, Gertrude and the Bird Girls *"Amazing Gertrude" – Gertrude and Bird Girls *"Monkey Around" – Wickersham Brothers and Horton *"Chasing the Whos" – Horton, Sour Kangaroo, Young Kangaroo, Bird Girls, Wickersham Brothers, The Cat, Vlad Vladikoff and Whos *"How Lucky You Are" – The Cat and Whos *"Notice Me, Horton" – Gertrude McFuzz and Horton *"How Lucky You Are" (Reprise) – Mayzie LaBird and Horton *"Horton Sits on the Egg" – Full Company ;Act II *"Our Story Resumes" – The Cat, JoJo, Horton, Gertrude McFuzz, General Genghis Kahn Schmitz, Bird Girls and Hunters *"Egg, Nest, and Tree" – Sour Kangaroo, Bird Girls, Wickersham Brothers, The Cat and Hunters *"The Circus McGurkus" – The Cat, Horton and Circus Animals *"Mayzie in Palm Beach" – Mayzie LaBird, The Cat Jose the Pool Boy and Horton *"Amayzing Horton" – Mayzie LaBird and Horton *"Alone in the Universe" (Reprise) – Horton *"Solla Sollew" – Horton, The Mayor, Mrs. Mayor, JoJo, and Circus McGurkus Animals and Performers *"The Butter Battle" – JoJo, General Genghis Kahn Schmitz and Cadets *"The Grinch Carved the Roast Beast" – The Grinch, The Mayor, Mrs. Mayor, Cindy Lou Who, Max the Dog, Schmitz and Whos *"Havin' a Hunch" – The Cat, JoJo, Hunches and Cat's Helpers *"All for You" – Gertrude, Horton and Bird Girls *"The People Versus Horton the Elephant" – Principals (except Mayzie and Schmitz), Wickershams, Yertle, Bird Girls, Young Kangaroo *"Finale" / "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!" – Full Company *"Curtain Call" / "Green Eggs and Ham" – Full Company Category: Stage musicals